1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an image forming device and more particularly to a waste toner bottle for the image forming device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming devices such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines, and the like, produce unusable “waste” or residual toner as a byproduct of an electrophotographic (EP) process. Ideally, all toner that is picked up by a photoconductive (PC) drum, such as from a developer roll in a single component development system or from a magnetic roll in a dual component development system, would be transferred onto a media sheet in a one-step toner transfer process or, prior to the media sheet, onto an intermediate transfer member (ITM) in a two-step toner transfer process. However, due to inefficiencies, some of the toner picked up by the PC drum does not get transferred to the media sheet or ITM. This residual toner left on the PC drum after it has contacted the media sheet or ITM must be removed before the next image is formed otherwise print defects may occur. A cleaner blade or a cleaner brush is typically placed in contact with the PC drum to wipe and remove residual toner from its surface. Residual toner is then delivered to and stored in a sealed waste toner bottle to prevent the residual toner from being distributed inside the image forming device. A similar cleaning operation may be performed on the developer (or magnetic) roll and the ITM.
It is customary for toner to flow into a waste toner bottle from one or more inlets in an uppermost portion of the waste toner bottle and then for a mechanism, such as an auger or rake, to crest the top of the resulting pile(s) of toner in the bottle to make it uniform. For example, FIG. 1 shows a waste toner bottle 100 having inlets 102A, 102B, 102C, 102D and 102E in an uppermost portion 103 of the bottle 100 and a horizontal auger 104 beneath the inlets 102. The toner 106 naturally falls to the bottom of bottle 100 due to gravity and then fills it from bottom to top until reaching the auger 104. Once the pile gets near the top of the bottle 100, the auger 104 crests the pile, making the top flat, by pushing the toner 106 over the edge of the pile where again gravity causes it to fall downward.
However, sometimes the architecture of the image forming device prevents toner from entering at the uppermost portion of the waste toner bottle. Further, in color EP image forming devices, multiple inlets may be required for each of the different color toners. Different customers will print different content. For example, some customers print all black text, others print multi-colored photos, and other may print just one color. As a result, the amount of toner entering each inlet of the waste toner bottle may be unpredictable, making it difficult to evenly distribute toner in the waste toner bottle. Accordingly, a waste toner bottle that provides uniform distribution of waste toner is desired.